I guess it was bound to happen, but I said I wouldn't buy a 9mm, for various reasons. My son grabbed a nice 9mm a couple gun shows ago & there was a 3913 that kept reappearing that caught my eye, but was more than I wanted to pay, considering things. However, at last weekends show I decided to try & get the 3913's price down & buy it, but that dealer wasn't there.
Then I came upon a private seller's table with only two guns on it, a 629 & a 3914. The owner told me the 3914 was a back-up purchase to his primary one, years ago, & has been unfired since. Original box, papers & two mags, one of which was wrapped up in the brown oil paper & "hidden". Not a scratch on it. More dust than residue in it. Noticed the slide release plunger was very hard to operate at first but otherwise it was essentially NIB or darn close. Everything else looked great.
Got him to come down a bit to what I thought was an appropriate price (turned out to be about in the middle of what the most recent ones have sold for here on the forum) & the deal was done. It's nice not having to pay transfer fees, shipping & sales tax extra, finally, on a purchase.
Got it home & quickly disassembled it. I suspect it had a coupe rounds fired in it, after the factory's, but the magazines showed no wear & one only had a wisp of powder residue, as did the whole gun. It was bone dry though, no lube anywhere. The slide release's plunger spring (remember) & the decocker's plunger spring both had a hint of rust starting (untreated metal?) but a good flush, cleaning & lube fixed them. Still had the original funky green colored recoil spring in it. Put some replacement Wolff springs in that I had on hand from my other 3rd Gen. "additions"; recoil, firing pin & mainspring. Weight: 25oz. empty. SA trigger pull: 7#. Test fired some primer-only rounds good.
I hope to handload up some ammo shortly (got plenty of recipes from loading for the boys' 9mms & tons of brass) & see how it shoots at the range this week.
I guess I'm just a sucker for a good lookin' 3rd Gen, 9mm or not. I couldn't resist... but no more!
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3914 disassembled
(-03a)
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3914 left side
(-04a)
.
3914 right side
(-05a)
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3914 in bucket of 9mm brass
(-09a)
.
3914 box label
(-01a)
.
Then I came upon a private seller's table with only two guns on it, a 629 & a 3914. The owner told me the 3914 was a back-up purchase to his primary one, years ago, & has been unfired since. Original box, papers & two mags, one of which was wrapped up in the brown oil paper & "hidden". Not a scratch on it. More dust than residue in it. Noticed the slide release plunger was very hard to operate at first but otherwise it was essentially NIB or darn close. Everything else looked great.
Got him to come down a bit to what I thought was an appropriate price (turned out to be about in the middle of what the most recent ones have sold for here on the forum) & the deal was done. It's nice not having to pay transfer fees, shipping & sales tax extra, finally, on a purchase.
Got it home & quickly disassembled it. I suspect it had a coupe rounds fired in it, after the factory's, but the magazines showed no wear & one only had a wisp of powder residue, as did the whole gun. It was bone dry though, no lube anywhere. The slide release's plunger spring (remember) & the decocker's plunger spring both had a hint of rust starting (untreated metal?) but a good flush, cleaning & lube fixed them. Still had the original funky green colored recoil spring in it. Put some replacement Wolff springs in that I had on hand from my other 3rd Gen. "additions"; recoil, firing pin & mainspring. Weight: 25oz. empty. SA trigger pull: 7#. Test fired some primer-only rounds good.
I hope to handload up some ammo shortly (got plenty of recipes from loading for the boys' 9mms & tons of brass) & see how it shoots at the range this week.
I guess I'm just a sucker for a good lookin' 3rd Gen, 9mm or not. I couldn't resist... but no more!
- .
3914 disassembled
(-03a)
.
3914 left side
(-04a)
.
3914 right side
(-05a)
.
3914 in bucket of 9mm brass
(-09a)
.
3914 box label
(-01a)
.
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